Alkylaromatic hydrocarbons find wide use inter alia as raw materials for preparation of valuable chemical compounds. Alkylated toluene for example may be converted to desired products typified by symmetrical dihydroxy toluene (orcinol), trimesic acid (1,3,5-benzene tricarboxylic acid), etc. In particular, 1-methyl-3,5-diisopropyl benzene is a valuable chemical intermediate for the production of such products; but it is expensive to obtain in high purity.
When toluene or cymene is alkylated with propylene to prepare diisopropyl toluene, it is difficult to recover individual isomers from the product mixture. In a typical embodiment, it may be possible for example to separate by distillation a cut containing 71% 1-methyl-3,5-diisopropyl benzene and 29% 1-methyl-2,4-diisopropyl benzene from a charge containing 32% and 38% of these materials together with other isomers.
It is an object of this invention to provide a process for obtaining 1-methyl-3,5-diisopropyl benzene. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.